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CHAP. 24.—MARVELLOUS BUILDINGS AT ROME, EIGHTEEN IN NUMBER.

But it is now time to pass on to the marvels in building
displayed by our own City, and to make some enquiry into the
resources and experience that we have gained in the lapse of
eight hundred years; and so prove that here, as well, the rest of
the world has been outdone by us: a thing which will appear,
in fact, to have occurred almost as many times as the marvels
are in number which I shall have to enumerate. If, indeed,
all the buildings of our City are considered in the aggregate,
and supposing them, so to say, all thrown together in one
vast mass, the united grandeur of them would lead one to
suppose that we were describing another world, accumulated
in a single spot.

Not to mention among our great works, the Circus Maximus,
that was constructed by the Dictator Cæsar, one stadium
in width and three in length, and occupying, with the adjacent
buildings, no less than four jugera, with room for two
hundred and sixty thousand spectators seated; am I not to
include in the number of our magnificent constructions, the
Basilica of Paulus,1 with its admirable Phrygian columns; the
Forum of the late Emperor Augustus; the Temple of Peace,
erected by the Emperor Vespasianus Augustus—some of the
finest works that the world has ever beheld—the roofing,
too, of the Vote-Office,2 that was built by Agrippa? not to
forget that, before his time, Valerius of Ostia, the architect,
had covered in a theatre at Rome, at the time of the public
Games celebrated by Libo?3

We behold with admiration pyramids that were built by
kings, when the very ground alone, that was purchased by the
Dictator Cæsar, for the construction of his Forum, cost one
hundred millions of sesterces! If, too, an enormous expenditure
has its attractions for any one whose mind is influenced
by monetary considerations, be it known to him that the house
in which Clodius dwelt, who was slain by Milo, was purchased
by him at the price of fourteen million eight hundred thousand
sesterces! a thing that, for my part, I look upon as no
less astounding than the monstrous follies that have been displayed
by kings. And then, as to Milo himself, the sums in
which he was indebted, amounted to no less than seventy mil-
lions of sesterces; a state of things, to be considered, in my
opinion, as one of the most portentous phænomena in the history
of the human mind. But it was in those days, too, that
old men still spoke in admiration of the vast proportions of
the Agger,4 and of the enormous foundations of the Capitol;
of the public sewers, too, a work more stupendous than any;
as mountains had to be pierced for their construction, and,
like the hanging city5 which we recently mentioned, navigation
had to be carried on beneath Rome; an event which
happened in the ædileship6 of M. Agrippa, after he had filled
the office of consul.

For this purpose, there are seven rivers, made, by artificial
channels, to flow beneath the city. Rushing onward, like so
many impetuous torrents, they are compelled to carry off and
sweep away all the sewerage; and swollen as they are by the
vast accession of the pluvial waters, they reverberate against
the sides and bottom of their channels. Occasionally, too,
the Tiber, overflowing, is thrown backward in its course, and
discharges itself by these outlets: obstinate is the contest that
ensues within between the meeting tides, but so firm and solid
is the masonry, that it is enabled to offer an effectual resistance.
Enormous as are the accumulations that are carried along
above, the work of the channels never gives way. Houses
falling spontaneously to ruins, or levelled with the ground
by conflagrations, are continually battering against them;
the ground, too, is shaken by earthquakes every now and
then; and yet, built as they were in the days of Tarquinius
Priscus, seven hundred years ago, these constructions have
survived, all but unharmed. We must not omit, too, to mention
one remarkable circumstance, and all the more remarkable
from the fact, that the most celebrated historians have
omitted to mention it. Tarquinius Priscus having commenced
the sewers, and set the lower classes to work upon them, the
laboriousness and prolonged duration of the employment became
equally an object of dread to them; and the consequence
was, that suicide was a thing of common occurrence, the
citizens adopting this method of escaping their troubles. For
this evil, however, the king devised a singular remedy, and
one that has never7 been resorted to either before that time or
since: for he ordered the bodies of all who had been thus
guilty of self-destruction, to be fastened to a cross, and left
there as a spectacle to their fellow - citizens and a prey
to birds and wild beasts. The result was, that that sense
of propriety which so peculiarly attaches itself to the Roman
name, and which more than once has gained a victory
when the battle was all but lost, came to the rescue on this
occasion as well; though for this once, the Romans were in
reality its dupes, as they forgot that, though they felt shocked
at the thoughts of such ignominy while alive, they would be
quite insensible to any such disgrace when dead. It is said
that Tarquinius made these sewers of dimensions sufficiently
large to admit of a waggon laden with hay passing along them.

All that we have just described, however, is but trifling
when placed in comparison with one marvellous fact, which I
must not omit to mention before I pass on to other subjects.
In the consulship8 of M. Lepidus and Q. Catulus, there was
not at Rome, as we learn from the most trustworthy authors,
a finer house than the one which belonged to Lepidus
himself: and yet, by Hercules! within five-and-thirty years
from that period, the very same house did not hold the hundredth
rank even in the City! Let a person, if he will, in
taking this fact into consideration, only calculate the vast
masses of marble, the productions of painters, the regal treasures
that must have been expended, in bringing these hundred
mansions to vie with one that had been in its day the most sumptuous
and the most celebrated in all the City; and then let
him reflect how that, since that period, and down to the present
time, these houses have all of them been surpassed by
others without number. There can be no doubt that conflagrations
are a punishment inflicted upon us for our luxury;
but such are our habits, that in spite of such warnings as these,
we cannot be made to understand that there are things in existence
more perishable even than man himself.

But there are still two other mansions by which all these
edifices have been eclipsed. Twice have we seen the whole
City environed by the palaces of the Emperors Caius9 and
Nero; that of the last, that nothing might be wanting to
its magnificence, being coated with gold.10 Surely such palaces
as these must have been intended for the abode of those who
created this mighty empire, and who left the plough or their
native hearth to go forth to conquer nations, and to return
laden with triumphs! men, in fact, whose very fields even occupied
less space than the audience-chambers11 of these palaces.

Indeed, one cannot but help reflecting how trifling a portion of
these palaces was equal to the sites which the republic granted
to its invincible generals, for the erection of their dwellings.
The supreme honour, too, attendant upon these grants—as in
the case of P. Valerius Publicola, the first consul with L. Brutus,
for his many meritorious services; and of his brother,
who twice in one consulship defeated the Sabines—was the
permission granted, by the terms of the decree, to have the
doors of their houses opening from without, and the gates
thrown back upon the public street. Such was the most distinguished
privilege accorded in those days to triumphal mansions
even!

I will not permit, however, these two Caiuses,12 or two
Neros, to enjoy this glory even, such as it is; for I will prove
that these extravagant follies of theirs have been surpassed, in
the use that was made of his wealth by M. Scaurus, a private
citizen. Indeed, I am by no means certain that it was not
the ædileship of this personage that inflicted the first great
blow upon the public manners, and that Sylla was not guilty
of a greater crime in giving such unlimited power to his stepson,13
than in the proscription of so many thousands. During
his ædileship, and only for the temporary purposes of a few
days, Scaurus executed the greatest14 work that has ever been
made by the hands of man, even when intended to be of everlasting
duration; his Theatre, I mean. This building consisted
of three storeys, supported upon three hundred and
sixty columns; and this, too, in a city which had not allowed
without some censure one of its greatest citizens15 to erect
six16 pillars of Hymettian marble. The ground-storey was of
marble, the second of glass, a species of luxury which ever
since that time has been quite unheard of, and the highest of
gilded wood. The lowermost columns, as previously17 stated,
were eight-and-thirty feet in height; and, placed between
these columns, as already18 mentioned, were brazen statues,
three thousand in number. The area19 of this theatre afforded
accommodation for eighty thousand spectators; and yet the
Theatre of Pompeius, after the City had so greatly increased,
and the inhabitants had become so vastly more numerous, was
considered abundantly large, with its sittings for forty thousand
only. The rest of the fittings of it, what with Attalic20
vestments, pictures, and the other stage-properties,21 were of
such enormous value that, after Scaurus had had conveyed to
his Tusculan villa such parts thereof as were not required for
the enjoyment of his daily luxuries, the loss was no less than
three hundred millions of sesterces, when the villa was burnt
by his servants in a spirit of revenge.

The consideration of such prodigality as this quite distracts
my attention, and compels me to digress from my original purpose,
in order to mention a still greater instance of extravagance,
in reference to wood. C. Curio,22 who died during the
civil wars, fighting on the side of Cæsar, found, to his dismay,
that he could not, when celebrating the funeral games in
honour of his father, surpass the riches and magnificence of
Scaurus—for where, in fact, was to be found such a stepsire
as Sylla, and such a mother as Metella, that bidder at all
auctions for the property of the proscribed? Where, too, was
he to find for his father, M. Scaurus, so long the principal man
in the city, and one who had acted, in his alliance with Marius,
as a receptacle for the plunder of whole provinces?—Indeed,
Scaurus himself was now no longer able to rival himself; and it
was at least one advantage which he derived from this destruction
by fire of so many objects brought from all parts of the earth,
that no one could ever after be his equal in this species of folly.
Curio, consequently, found himself compelled to fall back upon
his own resources, and to think of some new device of his
own. It is really worth our while to know what this device
was, if only to congratulate ourselves upon the manners of the
present day, and to reverse the ordinary mode of expression,
and term ourselves the men of the olden time.23

He caused to be erected, close together, two theatres of very
large dimensions, and built of wood, each of them nicely poised,
and turning on a pivot. Before mid-day, a spectacle of games
was exhibited in each; the theatres being turned back to back,
in order that the noise of neither of them might interfere with
what was going on in the other. Then, in the latter part of
the day, all on a sudden, the two theatres were swung round,
and, the corners uniting, brought face to face; the outer
frames,24 too, were removed, and thus an amphitheatre was
formed, in which combats of gladiators were presented to the
view; men whose safety was almost less compromised than was
that of the Roman people, in allowing itself to be thus whirled
round from side to side. Now, in this case, which have we
most reason to admire, the inventor or the invention? the artist,
or the author of the project? him who first dared to think of
such an enterprize, or him who ventured to undertake it? him
who obeyed the order, or him who gave it? But the thing that
surpasses all is, the frenzy that must have possessed the public,
to take their seats in a place which must of necessity have been
so unsubstantial and so insecure. Lo and behold! here is a
people that has conquered the whole earth, that has subdued
the universe, that divides the spoils of kingdoms and of nations,
that sends its laws to foreign lands, that shares in some degree
the attributes of the immortal gods in common with mankind,
suspended aloft in a machine, and showering plaudits even upon
its own peril!

This is indeed holding life cheap; and can we, after this,
complain of our disasters at Cannæ? How vast the catastrophe
that might have ensued! When cities are swallowed up by
an earthquake, it is looked upon by mankind as a general calamity;
and yet, here have we the whole Roman people, embarked,
so to say, in two ships, and sitting suspended on a
couple of pivots; the grand spectacle being its own struggle
with danger, and its liability to perish at any moment that the
overstrained machinery may give way! And then the object,
too, of all this—that public favour may be conciliated for the
tribune's25 harangues at a future day, and that, at the Rostra,
he may still have the power of shaking the tribes, nicely
balanced26 as they are! And really, what may he not dare
with those who, at his persuasion, have braved such perils as
these? Indeed, to confess the truth, at the funeral games
celebrated at the tomb of his father, it was no less than the
whole Roman people that shared the dangers of the gladiatorial
combats. When the pivots had now been sufficiently worked
and wearied, he gave another turn to his magnificent displays.
For, upon the last day, still preserving the form of the amphitheatre,
he cut the stage in two through the middle, and exhibited
a spectacle of athletes; after which, the stage being
suddenly withdrawn on either side, he exhibited a combat,
upon the same day, between such of the gladiators as had
previously proved victorious. And yet, with all this, Curio
was no king, no ruler of the destinies of a nation, nor yet a
person remarkable for his opulence even; seeing that he possessed
no resources of his own, beyond what he could realize
from the discord between the leading men.27

But let us now turn our attention to some marvels which,
justly appreciated, may be truthfully pronounced to remain
unsurpassed. Q. Marcius Rex,28 upon being commanded by
the senate to repair the Appian29 Aqueduct, and those of the
Anio30 and Tepula,31 constructed during his prætorship a new
aqueduct,32 which bore his name, and was brought hither by a
channel pierced through the sides of mountains. Agrippa,33
in his ædileship, united the Marcian with the Virgin34 Aqueduct,
and repaired and strengthened the channels of the others.
He also formed seven hundred wells, in addition to five hundred
fountains, and one hundred and thirty reservoirs, many
of them magnificently adorned. Upon these works, too, he
erected three hundred statues of marble or bronze, and four
hundred marble columns; and all this in the space of a single
year! In the work35 which he has written in commemoration
of his ædileship, he also informs us that public games were
celebrated for the space of fifty-nine days, and that one hundred
and seventy gratuitous baths were opened. The number
of these last at Rome, has increased to an infinite36 extent
since his time.

The preceding aqueducts, however, have all been surpassed
by the costly work which was more recently commenced by
the Emperor Caius,37 and completed by Claudius. Under these
princes, the Curtian and Cærulean Waters, with the New
Anio,38 were brought from a distance of forty miles, and at so
high a level that all the hills were supplied with water, on
which the City is built. The sum expended on these works
was three hundred and fifty millions of sesterces. If we only
take into consideration the abundant supply of water to the
public, for baths, ponds, canals, household purposes, gardens,
places in the suburbs, and country-houses; and then reflect
upon the distances that are traversed, the arches that have been
constructed, the mountains that have been pierced, the valleys
that have been levelled, we must of necessity admit that there
is nothing to be found more worthy of our admiration throughout
the whole universe.

Among the most memorable works, too, I, for my own part,
should include another undertaking of the Emperor Claudius,
although it was afterwards abandoned in consequence of the
hatred borne him by his successor;39 I mean the channel that
was cut through a mountain as an emissary for Lake Fucinus;40
a work which cost a sum beyond all calculation, and employed
a countless multitude of workmen for many years. In those
parts where the soil was found to be terreous, it was necessary
to pump up the water by the aid of machinery; in other parts,
again, the solid rock had to be hewn through. All this, too,
had to be done in the midst of darkness within; a series of
operations which can only be adequately conceived by those
who were witnesses of them, and which no human language
can possibly describe.

I pass in silence the harbour that has been formed at Ostia;
the various roads, too, that have been cut across mountains;
the Tyrrhenian Sea separated by an embankment from Lake
Lucrinus;41 and vast numbers of bridges constructed at an
enormous expense. Among the many other marvels, too, of
Italy, we are informed by Papirius Fabianus, a most diligent
enquirer into the operations of Nature, that the marble there
grows in the quarries; and those who work in the quarries
assure us that the wounds thus inflicted upon the mountains
fill up spontaneously. If such is the fact, luxury has good
grounds for hoping that it will never be at a loss for a supply
of materials for its gratification.

1 L. Æmilius Paulus, who was consul with C. Marcellus, A.U.C. 703.
His Basilica, a building which served as a court of law and as an exchange,
was erected in the Eighth Region of the City, at the cost of 1500
talents; which were sent to him by Cæsar, Plutarch says, as a bribe to
gain him over from the aristocratical party. It was surrounded with an
open peristyle of columns of Phrygian marble.

9 Caligula. The Palace of Caligula was situate on the Palatine Hill:
that of Nero extended from the Palatine Hill to the Esquiline, nearly the
whole of which was covered by it. It was left unfinished by Nero, but
the Emperor Otho completed it, Martial, Spectac. Ep. 2, speaks in terms
of indignation of there being now "but one house in all the City;" but,
unfortunately, he gives utterance to it with a view of flattering Domitian.

24 "Tabulis." The wooden frames, probably, which formed the
margin of one side of each theatre, and which, when they were brought
together, would make a diameter running through the circle which they
formed. Hardouin thinks that these theatres are alluded to in Virgil,
Georg. B. III. l. 22, et seq.

25 In allusion, probably, to the addresses delivered by Curio, when
tribune, from the Rostra, in favour of Cæsar.

26 "Pensiles." Pliny not improbably intends a pun here, this word
meaning also "suspended," or "poised"—in reference, probably, to their
suspension on the pivots in Curio's theatres.

27 Between Cæsar and Pompey, which he is supposed to have inflamed
for his own private purposes.

28 He was prætor B.C. 144; and, in order that he might complete his
aqueduct, his office was prolonged another year.

29 This aqueduct was begun by Appius Claudius Cæcus, the censor, and
was the first made at Rome; B.C. 313.

30 See B. iii. c. 17. It was commenced by M. Curius Dentatus, B.C.
273, the water being brought a distance of 43 miles. It was afterwards
known as the "Anio Vetus," to distinguish it from another aqueduct from
the same river, mentioned in this Chapter, and called the "Anio Novus."
The former was constructed of Peperino stone, and the water-course was
lined with cement. Considerable remains of it are still to be seen.

31 The Aqua Tepula was constructed B.C. 127; so that it is doubtful if
Pliny is not here in error.

32 The Aqua Marcia was brought a distance of upwards of 60 miles,
from the vicinity of Sublaqueum now Subiaco, and was of such elevation
that water could be supplied to the loftiest part of the Capitoline Hill.
A considerable number of the arches are still standing. In the vicinity of
the city it was afterwards united with the Aqua Tepula and the Aqua
Julia; the watercourse of the last being above that of the Aqua Tepula,
and that above the course of the Aqua Marcia. See B. xxxi. cc 24, 25.

40 See B. ii. c. 106, and B. iii. c. 17. In order to check the sudden
rise of its waters, a design was entertained by Julius Cæsar to construct a
subterranean canal from the lake into the valley of the Liris, which, unfortunately, was frustrated by his death. Claudius, however, executed the work,
by cutting a gallery upwards of an English mile and a half through the
limestone rock; a work which, according to Suetonius, occupied thirty
thousand workmen continually for eleven years. On opening it with a
mock naval combat, an accident happened in which many persons lost
their lives, and Claudius himself but narrowly escaped. The emissary
answered its purpose for some time, and, though Nero suffered the works
to fall into decay, they were repaired by Hadrian. In the middle ages,
however, the work fell in, and has not since been restored.

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